I am curious to know this as well as I am soon to be purchasing either an 800 or the KTM. Really like the 800, but needing to upgrade suspension and wheels on an already pricey bike seems like a bad plan.

I am curious to know this as well as I am soon to be purchasing either an 800 or the KTM. Really like the 800, but needing to upgrade suspension and wheels on an already pricey bike seems like a bad plan.

FYI the KTMs have the same wide and soft rims if you are talking about the 950/990 Adventure.

I still doubt that BMW has done any real upgrade to the forks like - gasp - making them adjustable or even just not crimping the cartridges so that they could at least be revalved...

New fork, why do I say this? This was a recollection from about two weeks back, but I'll try to explain what I do remember.

This came in from my dealer when the bike was in for her first service (9/15). He noticed a leak and proceeded to tear down the fork.

At that point he noticed that the fork seal was a different size, and I want to say 43mm. He went looking in the US for a replacement seal and there weren't any in the CONUS. He checked the parts diagram and saw that the Germany site wasn't up to date with the new 2013 model and that there were only 10 (5 sets) of those seals in DE anyhow (so he requested an overnight of a set of seals). In addition, because of the different size of the seals he said BMW hadn't released an official tool to do the job.

They cleaned it up and put it back as best they could. Told me to keep an eye on it and if it happens, be prepared to take it in again.

In conclusion..

1. No fork seals available in the US
2. No updated tool to manage/replace/repair the seals
3. Only 10 available in Germany
4. Having to overnight replacement seals

This leads me to believe it's a different fork. If it were the same fork and seal, they'd be able to swap it out with the parts they had/have on hand.